Meeting then Macbeth, he gives him the diamond sent by the king to Lady Macbeth; and after speaking of Duncan’s “measureless content,” he says,—
“I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show’d some truth.”
At which Macbeth proposes an interview, to
“Spend it in some words upon that business.”
To which he readily consents.
The “cursed thoughts,” then, are connected with his dreams about the weird sisters.
At his next appearance the same thoughts agitate him in Macbeth’s palace at Fores. His first words are—in soliloquy—
“Thou hast it now, king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promis’d; and, I fear,
Thou play’dst most foully for’t: yet it was said
It should not stand in thy posterity,
But that myself should be the root and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine),
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,
And set me up in hope? But, hush! no more.”
When it is recollected that, after the scene on the heath with the soldiers, these are nearly all the words we have from Banquo, it seems to be pretty clearly indicated that his thoughts at least were not perfectly honest and what they should have been.